Here are today's news items from Media Matters for America, click on the title or 'read more' to read the entirety of each story.

2008 Elections

Announcing Robertson's endorsement of Giuliani, MSNBC failed to note Robertson's numerous controversial remarks
Reporting on the announcement that Pat Robertson would endorse Rudy Giuliani for president, MSNBC's Contessa Brewer stated, "A big coup, of course, for Giuliani, who is fighting to win the votes of social conservatives." NBC political director Chuck Todd described Robertson as "the guy that almost invented the social conservative political movement" and asserted: "Robertson is a foreign policy hawk, and on foreign policy he sees eye to eye with Giuliani." But neither Brewer nor Todd noted that Robertson has repeatedly made controversial and inflammatory comments, including calling for the assassination of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, and endorsing the late Rev. Jerry Falwell's comments that "the abortionists," "the feminists," and the American Civil Liberties Union "helped this [the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks] happen."
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NY Times noted Giuliani's criticism of British health care, but not campaign's use of flawed statistics
A November 7 New York Times article on Judith Giuliani's appearance before "an audience of medical professionals and cancer survivors" reported that Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani "has repeatedly criticized Britain's health care system and said that the Democratic candidates were calling for a similar system of 'socialized medicine.' " While the Times article, by reporter Julie Bosman, noted that "[i]n fact, most of the Democrats say they advocate plans to extend coverage to the uninsured, not plans for government-provided health care," it did not point out that the figures Giuliani has cited to criticize Britain's health-care system -- that his "chance of surviving ... in the United States, 82 percent" but that his "chance of surviving prostate cancer in England, only 44 percent under socialized medicine" -- have been disputed. As Media Matters for America has documented (here and here), several media reports have called into question Giuliani's claims, noting that Giuliani was not citing mortality rates, but rather survival rates, which experts including Howard Parnes, chief of the Prostate and Urologic Cancer Research Group at the National Cancer Institute, called, in Parnes' word, "meaningless." In fact, Bosman herself had reported on the problems with Giuliani's statistics in an October 31 Times article: Read more

Media reported on complaints about Clinton archives without noting concerns surrounding Giuliani's papers
Numerous media outlets have covered the issue of whether former President Bill Clinton's papers relating to his wife, Sen. Hillary Clinton, will be released. Absent from these reports and discussions, however, was any mention of Rudy Giuliani's handing of the papers from his time as New York City mayor. While the Clintons' papers have remained in the custody of the National Archives, Giuliani's papers were for several years in the possession of a private foundation directed by Giuliani supporters.
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Matthews said, "It's not my job to sell anybody" -- then hailed Giuliani as "a tough, kick-butt policeman"
On the November 6 edition of Hardball, Chris Matthews asserted, "I'm not going to sell Rudy [Giuliani]. It's not my job to sell anybody." But Matthews declared Giuliani "the person with the best shot to win the Republican nomination," and he and his panelists called Giuilani a "a gunslinger," "a straight-talker," "a quick draw," "a tough, kick-butt policeman," and "this tough, kick-butt cop from New York." Matthews has a history of gushing over Giuliani. Read more

MSNBC's Matthews still obsessed with Clinton's "Chinese" clapping
On MSNBC's Hardball, discussing Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, Chris Matthews noted, "[W]ell, there she is clapping again," and asked, "[W]ould somebody please tell me why she claps every time she goes somewhere?" Similarly, the next day on MSNBC's Morning Joe, Matthews said that Clinton is "usually standing in front of the camera, and she's clapping, like she's Chinese. I know the Chinese clap at each other, but what is she clapping at?" These recent comments continue a pattern for Matthews, who has repeatedly highlighted Clinton's clapping, and has previously characterized it as "Chinese." Read more

Dobbs falsely claimed that Obama's "relationship with his faith [was] heretofore ... unexpressed"
On Lou Dobbs Tonight, Lou Dobbs said of Sen. Barack Obama: "[H]e may not be converting, but he is certainly revealing a relationship with his faith that heretofore had been unexpressed." In fact, Obama has discussed his faith publicly for years, including in his 1995 memoir. Read more

Politico: "[B]lessing" by Robertson -- who called for assassination of Hugo Chavez and spoke of Europe's "racial suicide" -- gives Giuliani "momentum"
Politico.com called Pat Robertson endorsement of Rudy Giuliani a "blessing" and said that it gives Giuliani "momentum." Similarly, the Politico's Mike Allen wrote that, with Robertson's announcement, Giuliani "has one of the most resonant imprimaturs with Christian voters." However, in claiming that Robertson's endorsement "gives Rudy Giuliani momentum" -- a questionable claim, given that the endorsement had been announced just that morning -- the Politico ignored Robertson's history of controversial statements. Read more

Health Care

Chris Matthews claimed, "Deceit is what drives me crazy," but what about Giuliani's "deceit"?
A New York Times article quoted Chris Matthews saying, "Deceit is what drives me crazy, either by Bill Clinton or the hawks in this administration." However, Media Matters for America has documented several instances in which Matthews has failed to note "deceit" by Rudy Giuliani. Despite evidence of Giuliani's "deceit," Matthews routinely praises Giuliani and his candidacy. Read more

War in Iraq

On Fox News' Special Report, Hume omitted key Syrian action from report on flow of Iraqi refugees
Reporting the Iraqi government's assertion that "more than 3,000 Iraqi families that were driven out of their Baghdad neighborhoods have returned home in the past three months because of the decline in sectarian violence," Fox News' Brit Hume stated, "A worker at the Iraqi Airways office in Damascus [Syria] says the flow of refugees from Iraq to Syria has almost reversed." But Hume did not report that Syrian officials recently began requiring people entering Syria from Iraq to obtain a visa first, which has reportedly eliminated the flow of refugees from Iraq into Syria almost entirely.
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